time

I am tired of never having time! ugh! i am ruled by the dang clock. there is never enough time. there

are so many things i want to do, so many things i expect of myself and never, ever enough time. its exhausting. i need to learn to be okay with not being able to do everything i want to do. one of those things is blogging. i used to hate getting behind on blogging. now, if i want to keep up on blogging, i'd have to be up til like 3 am. sleep sounds better to me.

We've done so many fun things and i've taken so many pictures over the holidays. i wish i had time to share them on the bloggy. I'll try to write some of it.....

- my little big brother Carson got married to Whitney- an AWESOME girl- on December 10th. i DO have lots of pics of them that maybe someday i'll get to.

-Mason is 5 months! and sleeping through the night! (sometimes!)

-Our Christmas was awesome! We did our family traditions and it was way fun. We got some fun things. Eventuallly, i plan to blog about this too.

-Andrew was offered a PTA job in Richfield! We also found a house we really like there too...this is in no way an annoucement that we are moving. If we do move, the soonest it would be is June probably. We still don't know how much they would pay him. That of course is a big factor in the whole process. But it is exciting to know that he could have a job, and we could possibly buy our own house! 

-Andrew is done with classes! He has two sets of clinicals to do now. One of them in January (for 5 weeks) and one in May for 5 weeks. Me and the kids will be lliving in Richfield during this time. that will be a change...

- I am heavily addicted to pinterest and design. I love graphic design! I would love to take classes on how to more easily do this.. maybe someday. I could spend all day on pinterest! ahhhh there are so many good ideas on there about EVERYTHING! its overwhelming.

-Jax plays over at his friend Ellie's house (our next door neighbor)  for hours most days. I asked him what they do over there and he tells me they play with her pink pony....hahah. i don't know why he loves it so much, but he does and it keeps him entertained.

-Our brother-in-law Joey, died on December 2nd I think. He fought leukemia for 2 years. He was told again and again that he didn't have long to live, and he'd always prove the doctors wrong. Eventually he got too weak to be able to take any more treatment, so his body shut down. Poor guy. He has a young family and my heart just aches for them. I want to be able to help them some how..just don't know how. Pray for them if you are reading this. I know they could use it.

-We were religious watchers of the "X-factor" and approved of Melanie winning, although we wanted Josh. Yeah, pretty sure no one else i knew watched that show , so no one knows what i'm talking about! We are sooooo excited for american idol to start!!! (the "sooooo" probably just meaning me) 

-We had the annual Talbot fondue dinner, went to our nephew's baptism, went to 2 ugly sweater parties, i went to a silly girls masquerade party, went to Richfield to see the Gentry fam, I took some newborn photos of my cousin's beautiful baby girl, aaaaand we spent new years eve at andrew's parents house with Gina (the sis who's husband just died) and his parents. we played games until midnight and ate tons and tons of junk. included in the junk eaten was caviar! yuck! but we all had to give it a try. it was horrid.  i didn't take pics because well, i'm all pictured out. it was a nice relaxing time...

i think that's about it. like i said, i'm trying to get better at accepting the fact that i suck at blogging and that's okay. its tough though. urrrrghhhh.

hope you all had a wonderful holiday!!! am i awful to be a little glad that its all over now? i'm glad life is back to normal.

here are some pics of new years eve day. we went to pine valley to find some mistletoe (one of our family traditions)

Christmas books

i'm slightly obsessed with christmas books. 

there is something magical about getting them out again every year.

even as an adult, seeing certain books again brings back a flood of memories.

one of my favorite christmas books as a kid was the night before christmas.

not just the story itself, but this old big book. it even has my name in it.

when i found it this year in my mom's bookcase , i had to take it home.

there's something about reading an old book. the tattered cardboard spine, a torn page, the old vintage pictures. 

last night, we read christmas stories under the colorful christmas tree lights. i want my kids to share the same love for old books.

another BEAUTIFUL book that i just about melted over when i saw it, is this one: 

it's pure magic.

each page has gorgeous pictures.

i love it!

and the story is way sweet too.

i loved this book so much that i couldn't just get one.

no.

sooooo....don't be surprised if you get this as a gift from us this year!

what are you favorite christmas books?

please share!

Mama's Man

This man is FOUR MONTHS now!

he's still such a tiny thing too.

He went to the Dr. a couple days ago for his check-up and this time he's a little bit under average.

I really have no idea how bald, skinny, UNDER average children come from me... so weird.

Jax was always in the 80 or 90 per centile. and his head was and still is off the charts!

Here are some things about our stinky man face:

-He's 100% mama's man. he loves me. he's obsessed with me. i actually love it. i think its awesome that someone is obsessed with me!  he prefers me over anyone else. if someone else is holding him, and he hears my voice, he instantly smiles and has to find where i am. i am the only one who can successfully get him to STAY asleep, and sometimes just looking at him can make him laugh. he's such a cutie. he loves to snuggle with me, and i don't mind it much either :)

- He's still into eating every 3 hours and eats about 4-6 oz. We just tried rice cereal mixed with apple juice for the first time tonight and he loved it! He did really well with it which was surprising to me..Jax didn't do so well at 4 months with the whole eating thing. well, jax still hates it.

-he's not rolling over yet, but he is laughing!! cutest thing ever!

- He still loves bathtime.  

-He's starting to show interest in toys & noises and he'll try to reach out and grab them. 

-He loves to eat his hands and occasionally will gag himself doing so.

-He spits up SOOOOO much. its disgusting! Jax never spit up. like never!  its crazy how different babies are.
-As far as sleeping goes, he's got the whole night time thing figured out. He'll sleep anywhere from 3-7 hours straight in the night! its pretty exciting. Jax got up EVERY THREE HOURS until we refused to keep doing it at THIRTEEN MONTHS! Ahhhhh talk about a nightmare.

-He takes a few naps a day and the longevity (is that the right word? does that mean "longness"?) of them depends on how well the person got him to sleep. If its me, i know what he likes. He likes to be wrapped very tightly, arms and all in a stretchy blanket that will stay tight around him. He likes his binky. He likes to either be laid down with and held or rocked and held. either way, you hold him very tightly in the left arm and spank his bum kind of hard with the right hand while saying "shhhh" in his ear. sometimes , saying the "shhh" isn't required. he likes to be held like 10-15 minutes until he's in a deep sleep. that's when you're safe to very, very quietly walk to is crib and set him in it. sometimes andrew makes the mistake of not wrapping him tightly. that will surely result in a shorter nap!

Jax loves him and he loves Jax. the age gap is actually great because jax realizes he's a baby and treats him like one. he realizes he needs to be gentle and loving with him. they of course are into way different things so there's no fighting. jax realizes mason needs attention and doesn't really get too jealous.  he'll call him things like "cutie heart" and "sweet man friend". hahaha they are so cute! mason loves to watch whatever jaxon does. i can tell already that he's gonna look up to him and everything he does! so its a good thing that jax is such a rule follower & so vocal!

this is mason's favorite blanket, favorite position and favorite place to have his naps.
and this is how its done , professionally, by me of course...

i love our macer facer...only on good days and today happens to be a good day! hahah jk gall! i love him everyday but he can sure be tough to handle with how high maintenance he is!

getting a tree!